Ski Bum Poet

I was sad to learn yesterday that businesses and student apartments were destroyed on North Main Street in Alfred…the small town in Alleghany County, NY were I went to college. NO ONE WAS HURT although 13 students lost everything…not to mention the long standing businesses that were destroyed.

This is especially difficult for me because it brings up some hard memories of my own. Although nearing 20 years now since I graduated from Alfred University in 1993, I experienced a bad fire there as well on November 5, 1992.

After a night of staying up REALLY late (and no, it was not a night of studying), I was sleeping it off in my off-campus apartment around noon when I woke to a phone ringing and quickly realized my loft was full of smoke, and a wall was on fire. There was no time for me to get dressed. Instead I made sure all the other tenants knew, then ran down the snowy street in bare feet and boxer shorts to the police HQ. By the time I got there and turned back to look (less than one block away), I could see flames coming out of my roommate’s window. No one was hurt in that fire either, but that will be an experience that will forever stick with me, and in fact I still get a little jumpy around flames.

My heart goes out to the people affected by the fire yesterday, but it’s important to be thankful that no one was hurt. As such, it will be much easier to move on…

Photo courtesy of The Evening Tribune

The Avett Brothers Tiny Desk Concert for NPR Music

This is a bit long from NPR Music, near 16 minutes. But do yourself a favor and watch at least the first 5:41…seriously. The description on the YouTube page for this clip kind of says it all. Enjoy…

With all due respect to its terrific albums and kinetic, frenetic live shows, if The Avett Brothers could put on a three-song acoustic concert at every workplace in America, the band would be a world-beating colossus. For proof, listen to this performance in the NPR Music offices…

Received this email from a friend recently, and thought it was interesting enough to post on my blog. Regardless of where you stand on the H1N1 vaccine, you should take a few simple steps to try and prevent infection in the first place…Dr. Vinay Goyal seems like a smart dude )

Prevent Swine Flu – Good Advice

Neti pots and sinus rinse kits are available at the drug store and relatively inexpensive under $15.

Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS, DRM, DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

The following message given by him seems to make a lot of sense and is important for people to know:

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat.. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).
2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).
3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Talk about stepping it up. Just happened to stumble upon one of Sage’s latest clips from the new TGR stuff, and he has once again blown us away. We went searching for some more, and found four total that TGR leaked out already…that I thought to share here. Two of my favorites are embedded below, and then two others are linked up as well. Enjoy!

Behind The Line – Sage Cattabriga-Alosa Skis Dr. Seuss

Behind the Line – Episode 14 – Sage Hotel Room

Paying full sticker is for suckers! Although it used to be more of a challenge for me (no Internet deals to turn to, no friends who were “skilebrities”, etc.), I always made it a priority to find the best buys possible on gear. Not to mention the fact that to pay retail was down right impossible for me. Back in the day I didn’t have time to work much, what with those 100-day ski and mt bike seasons every year.

What I found is that once I moved to Alta and spent a few winters, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to get the deals on ski gear. It’s really not that hard to do if you’re skiing long and deep seasons, and embedding yourself in that culture full time. I would hit all the swaps, find skis for sale in the lodges, and I even bought my share of hand-me-downs from freeriders…complete with forward mounted Salomon 916s…one pair of which I still use on some trashed, early season rock skis!

For some, including myself, mountain culture and the ski bum lifestyle became a career of choice. I wouldn't have had it any other way in my 20s. But having the freedom and time to ski every day came with sacrifices, in terms of affording the latest and greatest fat skis. I did ok though, that's for sure. Considering I didn't have a ski company giving me a few sets of skis each November

So at any rate, if you're a hard charging local who doesn't plan to work this winter, just ski, check out the select Used Skis I am featuring from Evogear.com. You can also visit their site to see the complete selection. Plenty of second hand, used or demo skis to browse through. In fact I think it's safe to say that's your best option online for used ski gear.

If you're not familiar with Evogear.com it's time to check them out. Although I've never had the chance to meet any of those folks, this store  is a client of our company...and it's run by skiers who get after it daily! Happy gear hunting. You better get on it, looking out the window right now at the Wasatch and I see yet another October layer of snow from last night...

Another cold and wet storm moved through last night, leaving a blanket of early October snow in our canyon. This morning at dawn I heard what sounded in my dream like Ellie yelling “heyyyy”. When I woke up and looked outside I saw several mule deer, with one fawn yelling because it couldn’t reach the aspen leaves everyone else was eating.

When I walked out into the kitchen there were two big boys digging through the compost as well, where I just dumped last night a bunch of semi-rotted apples and summer squash. The noise of the backdoor opening scattered them a bit, but an 8 pt stopped and turned back and starred long enough for me to get this shot…

This is an incredible photo recently posted by the fine folks at Alta Ski Shop, via Facebook. Stunning…

We have three inches of snow from a cold and wet storm that came through Utah yesterday. Still chilly out, but sun is shinning and it’s sure to be a good day. Here is a pic from our front porch this morning. That’s about 20 miles line of site to Alta, where chances are good that the snow piled up a foot or more. Happy October 1st from the Wasatch and Uintas